Let’s get the heavy lifting out of the way: Yes, Marquette and Creighton Bluejays are both in the Big East. Yes, they are both in the Midwest Division for the 2021 spring season as the Big East works to limit travel for the teams in the conference. Yes, Marquette and Creighton are going to play two Big East matches against each other that count in the conference standings to decide who advances to the Big East tournament.
These are not those two matches.
In a year when non-conference action is limited because of a shortened season that was shifted to the spring because of the pandemic, Marquette and Creighton, the two Big East teams that clearly care the most about volleyball looked at their six total matches against Butler, Xavier, and DePaul, and said “how can we improve our RPI outlook when it comes to NCAA tournament selection?